Runaway
by ReaperJay
Summary: Harry is betrayed by the ones he calls friends, he follows a killer into the woods, falls in love with a faceless man, makes friends with the most unlikely of people and plays Mother to children. His life couldn't get much better.


**Runaway**

_**'This'**_ = Harry's inside voice.

_'This' _= Thoughts

"This" = Speech

Harry loved forests. The trees were calm and mellow, branches swaying about, like hands of people do at a concert during a certain song. The contrasts of colours mixing with the seasons. The sounds of rustling leaves as they gently clashed with each other by the wind.

Harry sighed with longing as he watched them. Ever since he first laid eyes on the beautiful greenery he had become drawn to it. No matter how much he tried to resist. It seemed that just by looking at it, Harry felt a surge of warmth fill him and it urged him to come closer and burrow further into the woods, just to feel that warmth again.

_**'You could always leave, you know.'**_

Harry shook his head defiantly. He had friends he wanted to keep and things he had to do. He couldn't just go running off into the blue. What would his friends think?

_**'But they betrayed you, don't forget. They don't care.'**_

Harry grimaced. How could he forget? The pain he'd been through when he heard the truth.

_**~Flashback~**_

_**Harry trudged along the corridor, journeying his way to the Common Room. He had just come back from having yet another detention of scrubbing Snape's 2inch thick cauldrons. There were 40 of them this time, it was as if Snape had a closet of the stinking things just for him! Harry snorted. Come to think of it, he probably did, the man hated him enough. **_

_**Harry had just rounded a few more corners, when suddenly he heard it. A faint, muffled voice. He tip-toed an inch or two towards the source of the noise. **_

_**Harry trained his ears in the direction of the hall. It had appeared that the voice was coming from one of the empty classrooms on the fourth floor where Charms was held. **_

_**As Harry got closer, the voices became more and more clear. **_

**_'Wait a minute. Is that... Hermione?' _**

_**His eyes narrowed.**_

_**'And...Ron, as well!'**_

_**What are they up to? **_

_**Harry zeroed in on the words being spoken.**_

"_**But, Ron what if he finds out? He can't know that we're just pretending to be his friend for the fame and glory."**_

_**Harry's heart clenched, tears weld up in his eyes.**_

_**Ron scoffed. "Him, know? As if, he's so gullible he'll eat anything we feed him."**_

_**Harry closed his eyes as tears fell down his cheeks and fist his hands. He started to back off away from the door. Hands then searched down into his pockets and pulled out a large piece of fabric, it was basically a cloak. He wrapped the cloak around his body and head. As soon as his whole being was covered he was invisible, literally. **_

_**Harry and the cloak shot down the stone floor tears flying backwards, like rain on a fast moving car. He wasn't really sure where he was going but he trusted his feet to carry him somewhere safe.**_

_**~End of Flashback~**_

And the Astronomy Tower was where he ended up, - not that it was a bad thing, he had a great view of the Forbidden Forest – he had earlier been crying behind a banister that wrapped around the edge of the platform, the tears had now stopped flowing now and Harry was staring out from the window into the forest outside, below.

Harry sighed and buried his head into his knees, into a foetus position. How could they? His best friends. The voice inside him snorted.

**'_More like ex-friends.' _**

Harry hesitantly agreed, nodding.

_**'Humph, well.. let's not dwell on this, we can get revenge on them later. Right now we need to figure out a plan so that we can get out of Hogwarts and into those woods.'**_

Harry frowned quizzically.

_'But, how are we going to do that?'_

_**'Erm, you have an invisibility cloak remember. We can just sneak out.'**_

Harry laughed out loud from his own embarrassment.

Oh Merlin, how could he forget about that. One of most prized possessions along with the Marauders Map and his holly, phoenix wand. That cloak had been with him since his first year at Christmas, he loved it as well as the others.

Suddenly, a white shape caught his eye. He looked at the banister, a sheet of paper was taped to it. He noticed that there were something drawn on it, how curious. Harry took the paper carefully and began to examine it.

On it was a picture of a tall, faceless man wearing a suit, it looked like it was drawn by a five-year-old. Besides the drawing were letters spelling out:

**GO TO THE WOODS! HE WAITS!**

Harry looked out across the banister and into the forest on the school grounds. What he sees intrigues him. A figure wearing a white hoodie – the hood down – and what looks like black jeans. He couldn't really see the figures face because of the hood, but what he could tell from their body figure was that they were male.

Like he knew he was there, the male looked up and stared directly up at him. Now Harry could see his face properly and to be honest it slightly unnerved him. The males face was horrific, had any First Year seen this they would've had a heart-attack, his eyes were unblinking and had black shadowy burn stains around the eye socket, his nose was

pointed and his skin a sickly, pale white. But what was unnerving the most was his mouth. It was so surreal, his mouth had been carved into a permanent smile, from the corners of his mouth right up to his cheekbones.

Harry looked away for a minute blushing, feeling slightly embarrassed for staring at the boy, that was a bit rude. He looked back at the guy's face, but this time he looked at the eyes. For a second, a hint of amusement sped through his eyes but quickly turned into nothing as the man backed away, but not before sending Harry a look obviously saying 'be there.'

Harry nodded quickly and watched the boy turn away and run into the blackness of the Forbidden Forest.

_**'Hmm, that was interesting.'**_

_'Indeed. Are we going to go then?'_

_**'Well, by the look he gave us, we have no choice.'**_

_'Should we prepare?'_

Harry could feel the voice giving him a "Are you really that stupid?" look.

_'I'll take that as a yes.'_

Harry stood up, his cloak hanging on his left arm and quickly walked down the winding staircase. A few minutes later Harry was in the boy's dormitory putting things he might need into his robe pockets – which had an expansion charm on it to fit things in. His wand, a pocket knife, flash-light and his invisibility cloak. Once he had all his things, he rushed down the stairs and into the Common Room. He was about to slip out the door when a voice called out.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Dammit, it was Hermione. Harry put on a fake smile before turning around to face her.

"I was just going to go out for a walk."

Hermione gave him a stern look.

"What, without me? I think not."

Harry inwardly sighed.

"Look Hermione, I just want some time to myself that's all, please. I'll be back in at curfew." Said Harry as he gave her a pleading look.

Hermione looked at him suspiciously then sighed in defeat. Those big puppy eyes could break the hearts of many.

"Alright, but be back at curfew and only curfew."

Harry could have jumped for joy. Yes! Thank Merlin for that, there will be no going to the woods if Hermione came along.

"Thanks Hermione."

Harry gave her on last fake smile and headed out the door. Once he was out the door he slipped on his invisibility cloak and walked down quickly but quietly across the corridor. A few minutes later he was on the school grounds, tiptoeing his way towards the forest. As he walked on he noticed that the skies were getting darker.

"Looks like it's going to rain soon." Harry said to himself.

"Yeah, perfect weather for meeting our boss."

Harry gasped as he looked to the side. There leaning against a tree in all his bloody glory was the boy he saw an hour ago. The teenager chucked deeply when he saw the surprised look on his face.

"Oh, don't look so surprised Harry. You knew I was here."

"How do you know my name? Who is your boss? And who is our? Who are you?" Asked Harry pointing his wand in the teen's face. The boy just smirked and said smoothly.

"My, my, my. So many questions. But we'll get to that later, first we must get to our boss, he doesn't like to be kept waiting."

The boy started walking into the forest, beckoning him to follow. Harry complied hesitantly and walked behind the hoodie clad teen, his wand still out. As it got darker Harry did a wordless _Lumos_ spell and the tip of his wand created a small light, it may be small but it was bright enough to be able to see inside the forest. He supposed it was alright since the boy in front made no objections to the light.

After a little while, it started to get cold and Harry was shaking slightly from the cold. The dark haired teen seemed to notice this because he started to take his white hoodie off and handed it to Harry. Harry gave him a confused look. It seems, despite looks, that the teen is attempting to be friendly.

"I can't take this, won't you get cold?"

The teen gave him an annoyed look and shoved the hoodie into Harry's arms. "Just take it or freeze to death. We're nearly to there and I don't want boss to kill me because you get killed."

Harry sighed in defeat and put the hoodie on. A relieving warmth filled his body making Harry snuggle further into the hoodie savouring the warmth. They carried on walking further into the woods.

"Jeff." Murmured the teen suddenly.

"What?"

"That's my name, Jeff." Said Jeff a bit louder.

"Jeff," Said Harry testing it out, "it suits you."

Jeff just humphed and continued to look ahead. As they walked Harry noticed that the trees started to get thinner. He looked ahead and noticed a dark silhouette between the trees. They were walking towards it. Then Jeff stopped suddenly.

" What is it Jeff? What's wrong?"

"We're being followed."

Harry looked around startled. He saw nothing.

"By who?"

Jeff took his knife out and played with it casually, smirking at Harry's startled look.

"Oh, just a few acquaintances of mine. Nothing for your pretty little head to worry over."

Harry gave Jeff an unamused look. He folded his arms and pouted.

"I'm not pretty and if they your 'friends' why don't you call them over?"

"Why should I? They just going to ruin my fun." Jeff practically almost whined. If looks could kill Jeff would've die ten times over by the looks Harry was giving him. Harry rolled his eyes and casting a stinging spell at Jeff. A satisfied smile spread on his face as he heard Jeff yelp. He looked at Jeff to see him rubbing his backside from the sting it cause from the spell. He put a mask of mock concern on his face.

"Aww, does ickle Jeffy have a boo-boo?" cooed Harry as he patted Jeff on the head. Growling, Jeff swatted the hand away from his head and stood up, he looked as though he was about to stab Harry.

Just as Harry was about to dash, they heard a slow clapping noise from up above. Harry and Jeff looked up to see a tall, faceless man clad in a black suit with a red tie. The looked kind like the figure on the note Harry got at the Astronomy Tower. The man was lying on a tree branch, his legs swinging lazily in the air. The faceless head looking down at Harry and Jeff. Harry could feel the amusement radiating of the man and despite being faceless Harry found the man surprisingly handsome. _'No! Bad Harry! You should not be thinking these thoughts!'_

"Hey Slenderman, I bought the boy you wanted." Said Jeff pointing at Harry.

'Slenderman' jumped down from the tree landing in front of Harry and Jeff. He stretched his limbs then placing a hand on Jeff's shoulder and said. "Very good Jeff. I am very pleased, that you have managed to get this far and not lose this beautiful young man here." 'Slendy' gesturing to Harry.

Harry blushed. Did he really think he was beautiful? The tall, faceless man tilted his head to the blushing Harry. He held out his hand for Harry to shake. Harry slipped his hand onto the other's white hand, expecting it to be shaken. But 'Slenderman' did something that he didn't expect. The man lifted his hand, bending down and placing a kiss on the back of Harry's hand.

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Potter," Said Slenderman calmly. "My name is Slenderman, but you may call me Slendy or Slender."

"Y-you t-too S-Slender." Stuttered Harry his blush darkening, how embarrassing stuttering in front of his immediate crush. He hear Jeff snickering behind him. Harry sent him a glare, Jeff just grinned – as if the smile he had on his face could grow any wider. Slender then stood up straightened himself and turned his head to Jeff.

"You were gone for quite a while Jeff, Ben was starting to get worried. He's been screaming around about you not coming home yet."

Harry inwardly laughed. Sounds like it's Jeff's turn to blush.

"Well, it does take a damn while to go through these woods without being eaten by monsters It's his dang fault that he has no patients!" Said Jeff raising his voice slightly whilst blushing insanely.

Rolling his 'eyes' Slendy held out a hand for Harry to take. Harry took it, feeling slightly nervous. He heard Slendy whisper to him, "Come Harry. Let's go before Jeff gets explosive." Harry nodded. From the looks of it, Jeff _did_ look like he was about to explode. Harry and the faceless gentleman, swiftly and quietly speed walked away from Jeff and towards the dark silhouette.

As they got closer to it. It started to take the form of a large mansion. _'Hmm, I wonder who else lives there'._ Thought Harry as they walked on.

When the mansion was in full view, Harry gasped at its dark beauty. The mansion looked very old, there were bare, thick branches winding up the front of its face. They windows were dirty like they hadn't had a good clean in months, some of them were boarded up. The roof had some tiles missing and there was a birds nest here and there and Harry swore he saw a cat up there grinning!

Suddenly there was a barking noise Harry looked round for the source of the noise. He saw a dog bounding up to them, it's fur was a dark red with a black tuft on top of it's head. What was unusual about it though was that it had a large grin filled with sharp-looking, human teeth. The dog jumped onto Slendy giving him a big tackle-hug. Slenderman pushed the dog off before it got to excited. The dog turned it's head to Harry, it then padded across to him and licked his hand as a greeting and wagged it's wolf-like tail. Harry giggled lightly at the creature's antics.

"Smile seems to have taken quite a shine to you," Harry heard Jeff saying as he turned around to face Jeff. Looks like he had finally cooled down to a normal temperature. "C'mon let's go inside, I want you to meet the others."


End file.
